The candidate's vision was startling, presenting a different, harsher and perhaps more honest perspective on the United States than that normally on show. Richer and more powerful than at any time in its history, America was in truth an "under-developed democracy" where "corporatisation" and "globalisation" were systematically usurping citizens' rights.

Children, 20% of whom live in poverty, were the victims of ruthless mass marketing and the "commercialisation of childhood". Today's workers, he said, received less pay in real terms, for longer hours, and millions were steeped in debt. Unemployment was masked by breadline, part-time jobs, record numbers lacked any form of health insurance, and all around, public services from transport to schooling were crumbling.

The big corporations were despoiling and polluting the land, degrading the food supply, and dodging taxes; and all the time, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest was growing. Bill Gates's accumulated wealth, for example, was greater than that of 120m Americans combined. The top 1% of American households was richer than all the "bottom" 95% together. And what the corporate "monster", unchecked by a supine political establishment and a "voyeuristic" media, was doing in the US, it was also doing internationally, using tools like the World Trade Organisation. Americans, the candidate said, needed "to build a deep democracy by working hard for a regenerative progressive politics, as if people mattered". The Democratic party must "shape up or ship out".

Unfortunately, many might feel, this was not the Democrats' presidential candidate speaking. Al Gore was nowhere to be seen, or heard, when Ralph Nader, the veteran consumer rights and environmental campaigner, issued his radical manifesto in Denver last week while accepting the Green party's nomination. Mr Nader has no realistic chance of winning the White House. But he is going to try. And with one poll showing him with 7% support nationally, and with much higher ratings in some key states like California, he could tip the balance in a close-run race between Mr Gore ("Tweedledee" in Mr Nader's lexicon) and his Republican rival, George W "Tweedledum" Bush. Mr Nader's entry into a contest mired in cautious, cloying, centrist complacency is a breath of fresh air. At last, a plain-speaking, genuine man of the people, ready to break a few eggs.